Actividades de Teatro en Inglés

Recopilado por Harriet Thompson y Tina Kirk

Teachers of English - Try out these well-oiled drama activities:

NB: This material is not to be printed for use in courses or seminars

Warmer: Categories Ball Game

The students stand in a circle and brainstorm categories. The teacher throws a ball to a student and at the same time says a word from the chosen category. The student then catches the ball and throws to another person saying a different word from the same category. Once this has been mastered the teacher then introduces another category with another ball. Whilst adding a touch of confusion, the aim is to help concentration and keep the students focused. Depending on the level of your students, more balls and categories can be added.

Warmer: Another Set of Arms

- Tell students they are going to play a role e.g. teacher, TV presenter, chef.
- Put students into pairs.
- Student A puts their arms behind their back and student B stands behind and provides the arms for their partner.
- Give students 5 minutes to prepare the dialogue and gestures. They perform and the rest of the group watch.
- Other topic ideas: sing a nursery rhyme, sing a song with actions, tell a story or fairytale, tell a personal experience.

Warmer: Mime with an Object

Teacher takes an object (e.g. a board pen) and mimes cleaning teeth with it. They then pass it to student 2 who continues cleaning teeth and then uses the object to mime another action (e.g. playing tennis). The 'object' is then passed on to student 3 who mimes playing tennis and then changes it to another action around the circle.

Warmer: What are you doing?

Students stand in a circle. The first person mimes an action and the student to his right asks:' What are you doing?' The first person replies with an answer that is totally different to his mime. For example he is miming having a shower but he replies "I'm skiing'. In response to this, the person who asked the question mimes skiing. The next person in the circle asks: 'What are you doing?' The activity continues in this fashion.

Role-play: Getting your Own Way

- Divide students into As and Bs and give them a role card.
- They can have 5 minutes to prepare the activity. As can discuss tactics together and Bs can do likewise.
- Place students in pairs and give them a time limit to perform the role-play.
- Select a pair (perhaps those who have done the exercise well or a particularly funny one) to demonstrate their role-play in front of the others.

See the following example situation:

A: You are a customer in a shop.
You only want to buy a box of matches.
Do not buy anything else

B: You are a shopkeeper.
Try to sell the customer something big and expensive
(for example a television.)
If the customer says 'No', you must insist.

Have fun inventing your own situations!

Improvisation: Random Elements

- Divide the class into groups.
- Each group is given a slip of paper containing 1) a time 2) a place 3) a character 4) atmosphere and 5) emotion (as many as in the group). Example: night, in a forest, doctor, cold & worried.
- Each group must devise a short sketch to combine the 5 elements.
- The groups perform to each other and discuss the performances.

Improvisation: Character Studies Scene

- Divide students into two groups
- Give them 10 - 15 minutes to devise a scenario for the other group. They must consider time, place, atmosphere and characters. What is the relationship between the characters? How long have they known each other? Where are they when the scene starts? What are they talking about?
- Hotseating: Group 1 explains the scenario to Group 2 and who's playing which character. Group 2 are allowed to ask as many questions as they need to explore and understand their own characters i.e. What do I look like? How old am I? Am I married or divorced?

For more activities and information on Theatre Teacher Training courses please contact: harriet@actionenglishtheatre.com